A place where everyone fits in

Living with depression can be a daily struggle, as it can surface at the most inconvenient times. For this reason, I have often found it is a perfect excuse to avoid any situation which might trigger it.

DKThR seminar: introduction into Horse Boy Method in Solingen, Germany

On the 8th and 9th of September, we had the pleasure of introducing the Horse Boy Method to 15 participants in Solingen, Germany. 

Endangerous: Tracking Wolves

Last month saw Rowan, Rupert, Iliane and Jenny frantically buying warm clothes and snow shoes before embarking on a journey to Yellowstone National Park to track wolves for Rowans on-line television show ‘Endagerous.’

Gotta Catch’em All, Trey!

Pokemon Go is a new app that has created lots of interest from young people to old all around the world! It has also captured the attention of one of the kids that attends playdates at Horse Boy Headquarters in Elgin, Texas which provided us with the perfect opportunity to work with him on social skills and academics in a way that would be intrinsically motivating.

Joyful Exploration

• Humans are natural explorers. We are born with an intense desire to explore the world around us. We can become anesthetized to this but our brain never loses the ability to learn in this way (Medina, 2008).
• Companies that give staff time to explore where their mind asks them to have increased productivity and creativity (Medirata, 2007).
• Children who spend less time in structured activities and more time playing and exploring have better self-directed executive function.
  Executive function is essential for flexibly switching between different activities rather than getting stuck on one thing, stopping yourself from yelling when angry, delaying gratification etc.

Looking for life - Or the importance of free exploration in nature

Austin was a little autistic boy, he was very clever.

Each time he came to the center, he would devote his entire time to looking for insects under every log he could lift with his little arms.

No Pressure Learning: How to Test a Child without triggering fight, flight or freeze response

Research shows that if a person feels under too much pressure this can cause stress and the production of the hormone cortisol.

Our first ever workshop in magical Norway

Our first ever Horse Boy Method workshop in Norway took place on 1 and 2 September 2018 in Fåvang. The workshop was hosted by our Horse Boy practitioner Emma Helleman at her magical care farm Mattisborgen IPT Gård. She did an amazing job at preparing her farm and horses, Alex and Tindra, for the 6 participants in the workshop.

Ru's Weekly Autism Tip: Create an Environment Within an Environment

So we know that nature and freedom of movement are key when working with neurological difference as most of these excellent people can be shut down by man made industrial sensory triggers and are kinetic learners.We also need a 'yes' environment to encourage communication.

Ru's weekly autism tip: don't try it alone! build your Tribe!

Easier said than done i know. Most of us live pretty isolated family lives - you and your spouse (if you have one), the kids, your home - that's it.

Which is fine until a crisis hits.

Then you'd better have some people around you.

Ru's weekly autism tip: don't try it alone! build your Tribe!

Easier said than done i know. Most of us live pretty isolated family lives - you and your spouse (if you have one), the kids, your home - that's it.

Which is fine until a crisis hits.

Then you'd better have some people around you.

Ru's weekly Autism tip: ENVIRONMENT , ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT!

 It doesn't matter whether you use horses. It doesn't matter whether you use ABA, Horse Boy Methods, PECS, Sunrise, Play Therapy, Floortime, or a cocktail of all of them if you don't get the environment right - forget it.

Why?

Scub: Help Ma bring her sexy back ! Week 1

Here is an example of a Horse Boy Method activity prepared for Scub.

Scub beloved Horse Betsy passed away two years ago. Since then he hasn’t really ridden other horses and we wanted to plan a fun way to reintroduce new horses to Scub.

Scub: Help Ma bring her sexy back ! Week 2

Week 2:

By the second week Scub said “ Let’s go get Ma!”

He walked over to her field, walked her over to the tack room and took her riding arena.

The art of joyful exploration

John Medina, a world class molecular biologist writes in his bestselling book ‘Brain Rules’ that if we look back at our evolutionary history we will see that the human brain evolved to (1) solve problems (2) related to survival (3) in an unstable outdoor environment, and (4) to do so in nearly constant motion.

The joy of running

This little autistic boy was a runner. Everywhere he went, he would run, in stores, museum, nature parks,...

The magic of the trampoline

Gui was a 8 years old boy.

This day, he was having a meltdown, he was crying and screaming; he was trying very hard to calm himself down but nothing would work. He would say “I just don’t know how”, he was looking for something that would make him happy again but he couldn’t find his way out of it, he would say “I’m crying like a baby and I don’t like it”. 

Where is Woody?

Johnathan was a five year old boy.

He loved “Woody”, the character from the famous kids’ movie “Toy Story”. He was always wearing the same boots as Woody, and would imitate Woody’s poses.

While riding on the horse he would pretend to be Woody riding his horse “Bullseye”.